If elected, how will you champion the Early Years in your governance work on Council?

How will you support Council’s current initiatives focused on young children and their families?

Do you have any new or different initiatives to propose that will improve the early childhood development results for young children? If so, what are they?

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8/21/2017 8:20:18

Contact@ElectJustinDraper.com

Justin Draper

I have experience with program and project planning that deals directly with early childhood education when I worked with the City of Edmonton, which has given me an understanding and appreciation for the benefits of early childhood development. One of the focuses of my platform has been prioritizing long term development in Edmonton, and a major component of that is ensuring accessible early childhood education programs and services.

I believe that it is possible to make a considerable difference in the lives of children and families living in poverty here in Edmonton, given the right voice on council. Reducing, and eventually eliminating homelessness will have long term social and economic benefits in our communities, and I am committed to prioritizing poverty reduction at the council level.

I am proud to be a member of Child Friendly Edmonton, where I work to promote building a city fit for children, as well as to promote engaging children directly in the decisions that impact them. When elected, I will continue to work with Child Friendly Edmonton to ensure the voices of children and families are present and incorporated into the decisions that impact them, and that programs and services are designed with children in mind.

I am committed to working with all levels of government to promote accessible early childhood education in Edmonton. When elected, I will support the Edmonton Public Library, Edmonton Facilities (such as the Edmonton Valley Zoo, the Muttart Conservatory and the John Janzen Nature Centre) and other community hubs that promote early childhood education and lifelong learning.

I am passionate about building safe, accessible, inclusive communities in Edmonton. Ensuring that children, seniors, people with disabilities and people living in poverty have the the resources they need to succeed will be a priority for me on council.

Poverty can have intergenerational consequences, and helping children get out of poverty will have lasting benefits over their lifetime. This is why I am committed to fighting poverty and homelessness in Edmonton. I am advocating for a three part poverty reduction strategy, that includes prevention, adequate services and housing first.

1) Prevention - Being able to provide the supports to help someone before they become homeless. If we can have preventative services to help someone who may be at risk of becoming homeless, we can make sure they have the supports they need early on. Additionally, supports such as mental health resources or addiction counselling are valuable to all people, not just those who are at risk of becoming homeless, so ensuring these resources are available and accessible will have lasting benefits across the community. I am committed to working with marginalized and at risk groups to ensure they have access to poverty prevention resources.2) Adequate Services - Helping people who are already homeless. I am committed to working with Edmonton emergency services, poverty and homelessness reduction groups and all levels of government to help connect youth who are currently homeless with the services they need to succeed. I understand that every person is different, and requires different support and resources, and I am committed to individualized resources for children and families in the Edmonton area. 3) Housing First - Accessible, inclusive affordable housing. I support a housing first approach that ensures that putting a roof over the head of someone who is without a home is the first priority. To ensure this is possible, I am supporting a city wide target of 5-10% affordable housing in every community. Someone living in poverty should have the services they need close to home, and these services should not all be restricted to a few designated areas in the city. I support a balanced approach to citywide poverty reduction, ensuring that resources are available no matter where in the city you may live, and that no one area is drastically different in its poverty or homelessness reduction responsibility than the rest of the city.

In addition, I will ensure poverty reduction is a priority when designing new communities, and developing existing communities. I will fight to expand the city's existing Transit-Oriented-Development strategy and fight to develop our transit system as a low cost, environmentally friendly option for children and families getting around our city. I will work with all levels of government to ensure that services such as schools, libraries and medical services are accessible and available to children and families in the community who are living in poverty.

3

9/6/2017 0:13:29

info@votesamhachem.com

Sam Hachem

As a father to a young daughter myself, I feel that listening to the needs of the constituents will be first and foremost.

I would ask to be more hands on and support the people that are working directly on these initiatives.

Well supporting the educational system is key, even though it usually falls under provincial matters. The student teacher ratios do need to be sustainable.

4

9/6/2017 22:04:32

felixamen.yegcouncillor@gmail.com

Felix Amenaghawon

This will be one of my areas of focus if elected. First I will like to set up a review committee to access what we have on ground now, what and where we need to be, thereafter come up with ways we can improve on it.

I intend to work more closely with the various groups and other levels of government to encourage more attention and funding to be allocated in our budget to Early Years development because the future of any nation depend on their investment on the younger generation starting from early years.

Infrastructure to improve early childhood development, support holistic decisions to increase grants and funding for early childhood research and development, Strengthen teachers and other associated workers quality. Look for ways to re-purpose facilities for early years coalition usage. I will encourage Community wide engagement and be involved from the grassroots level.

5

9/19/2017 11:16:35

Beatrice@Beatrice4council.ca

Beatrice Ghettuba

Early years of child development are critical for a successful adult. Investing in Early Years is critical.I would like to see your initiative in the south side duplicated city wide especially in areas of low income. This is so that the city is informed of issues of early years affecting every demographic. In other words we own this intiative, support and promote it.I would like to see bench marking and the adopting of evidence based research/best practises..

1. Purpose to adequately address with issues of poverty eradication beyond proclamations and high sounding goals.2. Lobby and partner with both Provincial and Federal, to bring children issues to the for front and resource them appropriately.

I spoke to Early Learners Practioners and they gave me these points. Not in any order of importance:

● Continuing to advocate for all children and youth to ensure opportunities are available for all, regardless of background, etc. ● Designing spaces to be child friendly in all projects; and encourage children and adults to play. ● Child friendly streets and spaces. ● Taking on the risk and letting the kids play when and how they can. ● Advocating for the child’s right to play by supporting play leaders as animators of enriched play environments.● Being a leader in facilitating Nature Play and opportunities for child friendly activities. ● Promise to give children opportunity to explore and freedom to play as they wish! ● Engaging children in community gardens and finding other outdoor play options. ● Advocating for more natural play spaces and encouraging community support. ● Incorporate more “unstructured” play in children’s programs. • support families through preventative social service. ● Continuing to advocate for safe, appropriate spaces for early childhood. ● Distributing and advocating for child friendly multi-unit housing guidelines. ● Advocating for children of all ages, and especially ensuring children from all backgrounds and socioeconomic places. ● Creating an interactive play space both indoors and outdoors for the children, families, and educators to learn and explore. ● Being open to new ideas for play. ● Helping communities build spaces that encourage play. ● Continuing to support free recreation programming in communities city-wide. ● Continuing to advocate for children to be seen as worthy citizens of the city, with valuable thoughts, ideas, and perspectives. ● Supporting family day home educators by informing them of all the resources available to them… ● Advocating for the rights of children exposed to domestic violence and/or trauma. Educating policy makers, educators, and community agencies on the importance of providing support and play opportunities for children and youth of trauma. Other possible initiatives• More spaces available for infants (12 months-18 months) in childcare.• More Family/early childhood programming at community league level• Supporting the building of strong communities despite diversity• Support the increase of free preschool programs for low income and/or at risk families• Encourage higher economic status communities to partner/sponsor some of our lower economic status communities.• Encourage and support community programming that supports the strengthening of the multigenerational family unit.• Encourage and support community programming that provides early intervention and the prevention of mental health issues in parents.• Support family/children’s mental health programs

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